WORLD LITERATURE I (ENG 251)

Homer Study Guide - The Main Characters of the Troy Cycle

Greek Deities:

Since many older translations of Homer use Latin names for the various Greek gods, instead of the Greek names, I have included the Latin names where relevant. The characters are the same, whichever names are being used. The only Greek mortal who regularly undergoes a name change is Odysseus, who is frequently referred to by his Latin name, Ulysses.

Greek

Latin

Characteristics

Ares

Mars

god of war; lover of Aphrodite

Apollo

god of plague for infractions of ritual; angry at Greeks for insulting his priest, Chryses

Aphrodite

Venus

goddess of love; married to Hephaestus; lover of Ares

Athena

Minerva

goddess of wisdom; born from Zeus' head; Odysseus' patron

Eris

goddess of strife; threw golden apple which started quarrel between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite over which one was the most beautiful

Hephaestus

Vulcan

god of the forge; lame; spouse of Aphrodite

Hera

Juno

goddess of marriage; sister and wife of Zeus

Hermes

Mercury

messenger god, especially from gods to mortals

Polyphemus

the man-eating Cyclops who trapped Odysseus and his men in his cave; blinded by Odysseus; son of Poseidon

Poseidon

Neptune

god of the sea, earthquakes and horses; brother of Zeus; father of Cyclops Polyphemus

Thetis

a sea nymph; mother of Achilles; pleads with Zeus to let the Trojans overcome the Greek armies to placate Achilles honor

Zeus

Jove/ Jupiter

god of the sky and thunderbolts; chief deity; father of many half mortal children; final arbiter of law and order; initiator of the Trojan War

Greek Mortals:

Achilles

son of Peleus, a mortal, and Thetis, a sea nymph; greatest Greek warrior at Troy; leader of Myrmidons; quarreled with Agamemnon over Briseis, a war-prize concubine

Agamemnon

high king of Greece; king of Mycenae; led Greek armies against Troy; husband of Clytemnestra; sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to get favorable winds to sail to Troy; killed by Clytemnestra

Calchas

Greek seer who advised Agamemnon to return Chryseis in order to stop the plague sent by Apollo

Clytemnestra

murdered her husband Agamemnon when he returned from Troy; daughter of Zeus and Leda; sister to Helen

Diomedes

brave, wise Greek warrior

Menelaus

king of Sparta; brother of Agamemnon; husband of Helen

Helen

the immediate cause of the war; wife of Menelaus; either seized by or ran away with Paris to Troy; daughter of Zeus and Leda

Nestor

king of Pylos; wise counselor

Odysseus

king of Ithaca; father of Telemachus; excellent counselor; devised Trojan Horse strategy; took ten years to return home after the war

Patroclus

Achilles' dear friend; killed by Hector who thought he was Achilles because he wore Achilles' armor

Penelope

faithful wife of Odysseus

Telemachus

son of Odysseus and Penelope

Trojans:

Aeneas

Trojan noble; not particularly important until Virgil's Aeneid

Andromache

wife of Hector, mother of Astyanax

Astyanax

young son of Andromache and Hector; killed by the Greeks to prevent his growing to up avenge Hector's death

Cassandra

a Trojan princess, cursed by Apollo to always speak the truth and never be believed; carried off by Agamemnon as a war prize; probably murdered by Clytemnestra

Chryses

priest of Apollo, whose daughter is wrongfully kept as a war-prize by Agamemnon

Hecuba

wife of Priam; queen of Troy; mother of Hector

Hector

son of Priam and Hecuba; father of Astyanax; Troy's finest hero; killed Patroclus; killed by Achilles

Laomedon

king of Troy when Hercules and Jason conquered it; father of Priam

Paris

love-obsessed son of Priam and Hecuba; judged goddesses' beauty; married Helen after bringing her to Troy; killed Achilles after the Iliad events

Priam

king of Troy when Greek armies under Agamemnon destroyed it; father of Hector and forty-nine other children; some by Hecuba, others by concubines